Dow to approach Appeals' Court

ISAIAH MOREWAGAE
Staff Writer | Wednesday January 12, 2011 00:00

 

Dow has been roped in to represent Raymond Leshomo, who is jointly charged with Arnold Masango, for the murder of their supervisor, Mario Lottering, at Mupane Gold Mine in the North East District on May 27, 2006.

Dow replaces Ernest Mosate of Mosate Attorneys who was appointed to represent Leshomo during trial. The other defence attorney, Bengbame Sechele, of BB Sechele Attorneys, who had represented Masango throughout the trial, will represent him during the appeal.

Francistown High Court judge, Moses Chinhengo, sentenced Masango and Leshomo to death late 2009.  Their appeal was been scheduled for today and it is expected that both attorneys will try to convince the panel of Court of Appeal judges to spare the lives of their clients.

It emerged during the course of the case that Masango and Leshomo hatched a plan to kill Lottering after a series of misunderstandings between the deceased and Leshomo.  After knocking off on the fateful day, Leshomo later snuck back into the mine in Masango's Land Cruiser without using his access card.  The two would later ambush Lottering and beat him to death with a jack winder.

Lottering's cellphone, bank cards and driver's licence were later found at Leshomo's house.

The two had previously tried to pin the blame on each other with Masango insisting that he was an innocent bystander in the murder, while Leshomo maintained that he murdered Lottering after prodding from Masango whom he regarded as his mentor and superior.

Lottering's May 2006 murder was described by the Francistown police as the most gruesome in the history of Francistown.

In mitigation, Leshomo's defence lawyer then, Mosate, pleaded with the judge to be lenient because Leshomo had only murdered Lottering after incessant prodding from Masango.

He also said that Leshomo had not premeditated the murder as he had only committed the offence after pressure from his mentor and superior.  Mosate also pleaded with the court to take into consideration the fact that Leshomo was only 21 when he committed the offence in 2006.  Masango's defence counsel, Sechele, also argued that Masango committed the murder after provocation from Lottering.

He also argued that Masango had committed the murder at age 29 when he was still a youth.

In a related matter, Masango is facing another murder charge in connection with the death of his girlfriend, who was allegedly poisoned in 2007.  In an act that sparked a public outcry and protest, Justice Thomas Masuku granted Masango bail in August of the same year. But he would later lose his freedom after being arrested in connection with the murder of his girlfriend, Masaitsiweng Dintweng, who was a teacher at Ramoja CJSS.  At the time she was waiting to be drafted into the Botswana Defence Force as part of the first batch of women recruits.